Some sub-meters, like Metro Prepay, are dumb meters. They cannot be read or written to remotely The disadvantages are: When tenants buy tokens, they are changed into units of energy at that tariff at that time. These tokens need to be typed by the tenant into the meter rather than automatically applied to the meter. This is truly a pain. Tenants cannot set up Auto Recharges. If you have good tenants who are busy at work, they are unlikely to be happy. They cannot report tampering - instead they rely on close monitoring of the payments in an attempt to guess that that they have been tampered with. If the meter is inside the flat, and the tenant does not allow access, then you may have a real problem to prove tampering. You cannot see electricity consumption remotely. Tenants cannot see their balance when they are not at home. As the meter does not know the time or the day, they cannot accurately measure day / night / weekend rates - instead they must make crude approximations. If there is a price increase then the units already bought are at the old rate. During void periods you cannot ensure that there is electricity at the flat without physically visiting the flat. The advantages are: Their meters are slightly cheaper to buy at approx half the price of ours. However, their fees for top-ups are about the same at 10% Admin + 3% Paypoint + VAT. They make pay outs for electricity used approximately three weeks earlier than we do. They do not need a mobile phone network. Whereas we need at lease an occasional mobile phone network to change tariffs. (This is written to the best of our understanding in May 2026 and you may wish to make your own enquiries to ensure that this is still accurate).

Top-up meters also offer a smart metering solution The disadvantages are: Their meters are significantly more expensive than ours. They have a back up token code system - they do not have integrated keypads. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxb23oqyBak for how to enter this code, and image doing this if the meter is in an awkward location. They charge an annual fee, which complicates matters to ensure that you can recover this from tenants. There are additional fees, such as paying for Stripe fees, and £3 for cash payouts. They do not have Paypoint top-ups, out of hours help, a phone top-up line. They do not have an auto recharge function. They do not do have Three Phase Meters. The advantages are: They have a gas metering solution. Their running costs are similar to Pay4Energy, and may work out slightly cheaper for some premises with higher consumption (but that don't need three phase meters). But we are not convinced by their claim that "they have the lowest operating cost in the market"; (This is written to the best of our understanding in May 2026 and you may wish to make your own enquiries to ensure that this is still accurate).

There are several companies who offer sub-metering based on LoRaWAN systems. Some of which are PAYG - often using cards. LoRaWAN is essentially a wide area WiFi system and it is used as an alternative to using the mobile phone network. To use LoRaWAN you would need to set up the system and configure it. Including purchasing a specialist concentrator with a mast. This is also likely to require maintenance and cause issues should the network go down. This may be a good solution where there is no mobile phone network.